Campaigners plea to new transport boss to reconsider Shrewsbury relief road

Better Shrewsbury Transport penned a letter to Councillor Dean Carroll making clear their objections to the £81 million road. More than 4,500 objections have been uploaded to the council's planning portal.

The letter lays out environmental, financial and traffic concerns, and that a large amount of people do not want the road to be built. It says: "We ask that you review the project and its viability and desirability. We see it as a scheme conceived 30 years ago that has become ever more wrong as time has gone on.

"It now appears to be getting out of hand as cost worries dominate, and cost cutting is clearly the reason behind the latest amendments. The recently publicised sub-standard cycleway, the removal of a climbing lane that was previously been considered necessary, and a general approach of doing the minimum to only meet mandatory requirements, is making the proposal unfit for purpose but still ruinously expensive for Shropshire. Surely it is time to stop and think."

Councillor Carroll took over responsibility for transport from Steve Charmley, who left the cabinet following abuse on social media.

Frank Oldaker, from Better Shrewsbury Transport, said: “The letter is intended to help Councillor Carroll understand the reasons why there is such strong opposition and also to ask him to make sure that the carefully considered comments that have been made on the planning application are taken seriously and the questions that have been raised are answered. The response has been hopelessly inadequate and apart from ourselves there are businesses expressing extreme frustration.

"Much of the data on which the project is based is suspect and the scheme is looking more and more in chaos. It is very likely to turn into a financial disaster for Shropshire, do damage to businesses and be environmentally catastrophic – at the same time bringing very little benefit."